21,728 RICE BAGS FOUND HOARDED IN SANGRUR

SANGRUR : A team of the Punjab food and civil supplies department conducted raids at five mills in Sangrur district and found 21,728 bags of hoarded rice.

These rice mills were allegedly trying to recycle public distribution system (PDS) rice into the milling process, said Rakesh Kumar Singla, chief vigilance officer of the department.

Some rice mill owners procured PDS rice bought in black market last year from other states and saved it to recycle it in the coming milling season by showing bogus procurement of the crop through fictitious bills, he said. Singla said 9,325 bags of rice were found at Shiva Rice and General Mills, 3,852 at Duggan Rice Mill, 1,193 at Shree Rama Rice Mills, 2,810 at Punjab Paper Board Rice Mills, 1,500 in Trishala Food and 3,084 at Bansal Agro.

He said to evade action, some millers were playing a friendly match by issuing bills to each other to prove that the rice is genuinely purchased from another rice mill, without being able to provide an inherent evidence to support the logic behind such sales/purchases. “The new hideout is cold storage,” he said, adding that two trucks with 350 bags of rice and 350 bags of broken rice were spotted outside a cold storage in Malerkotla.

In a statement, food and civil supplies minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu said: “Despite repeated warnings , the rice millers have not mended their ways. We are writing to mandi board and sales tax department and will also initiate criminal action against them.” CHANDIGARH: MPS and MLAS of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday sat on a hunger strike outside the official residence of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh demanding action against those responsible for sacrilege incidents and police firing at protesters in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015.

Chandigarh Police stopped the protesters as prohibitory orders were imposed in the area. Heavy security arrangements were in place following the AAP’S hunger strike call in front of the house of the CM, who had gone to Delhi. AAP leaders and police entered into an argument when protesters were not allowed to sit on the road outside Amarinder’s residence.

Later, police allowed only four AAP leaders — leader of opposition Harpal Singh Cheema, MLAS Aman Arora and Baljinder Kaur and Faridkot MP Sadhu Singh — to sit in the open area.

Other AAP MLAS Meet Hayer, Sarabjit Kaur Manuke, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Amar- jit Singh Sandoa and Budh Ram were told to sit at some other place.

Earlier, the AAP leaders paid obeisance at the Nada Sahib Gurdwara in Panchkula and prayed for punishment to the accused of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

“Both the Congress and the SAD-BJP are playing a friendly match. Amarinder announced a time-bound probe by a special investigation team in the sacrilege and police firing incidents, but no action has been taken against persons named in Justice Ranjit Singh panel report. Both the Congress and the SAD want to divert the people’s attention by holding parallel rallies,” said Cheema.

(With PTI inputs)

PARTY LEADERS WERE ALLOWED TO SIT ON STRIKE AS POLICE IMPOSED PROHIBITORY ORDERS IN THE AREA